Whenever the governing board of any drainage or levee district becomes the owner of a tax sale certificate, for any tract of land within the district, and one or more year's taxes subsequent to the tax certificate have gone delinquent, the said governing board may, on behalf of such district, make application to the district court of the county within which such real estate or a part thereof is situated, for the appointment of a receiver to take charge of said delinquent real estate.
Iowa Code § 468.177
89 Acts, ch 126, §2